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Remote Work versus Traditional
Remote Work versus Traditional Face-to-Face Jobs
Student’s name
Institutional affiliation
Remote Work versus Traditional Face-to-Face Jobs
Introduction
According to Owl Labs research, approximately 50% of employees work from home once a week and a third works full time remotely. Remote work gained significant popularity in 2020 as more people had to work from home and quarantine to curb the spread of the virus. Ever since there has been an exponential increase in the number of remote employees, positive results have led institutions to permanently consider remote work for their employees. Many organizations have shifted systems and tools to facilitate remote working because of the pandemic for the first time. This is a significant adjustment for both employers and employees. 77% of remote employees report increased productivity because they have less distraction. Remote working refers to an individual working in any other place rather than the traditional office environment. Remote workers include people that work from home, cafes, and co-working spaces. Additionally, remote workers entail people who work remotely but are on a flexible schedule and show up in the office every once in a while. The distinctions in remote work have also given rise to terms such as telecommuting and flex work. GitLab is an open core organization that develops software for software development lifecycle with over 30 million registered users, 1 million active licensed users, and a community of over 2500 contributors.
GitLab provides a platform to empower institutions to maximize returns on software development by delivering software efficiently and faster while strengthening compliance and security. The purpose of this text is to dissect the experience of an all-remote job and compare it with a traditionally face-to-face job.
Differences between an All-Remote Job at GitLab and a Face-to-Face Job
The experience of working remotely differs from the experience of working in a traditionally face-to-face job differs in terms of productivity, financial costs and flexibility. An individual that works an all-remote job at GitLab is more productive than an individual working in an office set-up. According to research conducted by UC Irvine, an ordinary office worker gets interrupted from their work every 11 seconds (Orsini & Rodrigues, 2020). To make the matter worse, it takes about 25 minutes for a person to get back to their task following an interruption. Distractions are a huge setback for employee productivity. On the other hand, the nature of remote work does not encourage small talk among colleagues. Although remote workers might get distracted by other things such as their phones or televisions and music, they are still more consistent and productive than their office-bound counterparts. In terms of financial costs, people who work remotely have fewer expenses than those in an office. A person holding an office job has to foot commuting costs. If they are driving, they will have to pay for gas or a taxi or public transport. Additionally, the people that drive to work also have to part with parking fees. The individual also has to set aside money for a cup of fee or lunch during the day. These expenses tend to add up and one may find themselves spending hundreds of dollars in a month. However, an individual that works from home does not have to worry about commuting expenses, and sitting in traffic. They are also less likely to be tempted to eat out or spend money during happy hour after work. An individual working remotely at GitLab is more flexible than a person holding a traditional office job. This is because an office worker works with a tight schedule. Every day, their alarm goes off at the exact time. They then take their coffee and head out for work. By 9 am, they are already at the desk and ready to work. However, a person that works remotely does not have to follow a strict schedule. They can wake up at any time because they can tailor their day to suit their needs. If they have fewer tasks to complete on that day, they can decide to wake up at 10 am or work late in the night. Additionally, remote workers get to pick appropriate times to have lunch and when to stop working. This is contrary to office workers who have to go for lunch break at 1 pm and leave the office at 5 pm. In essence, remote workers are more flexible than office workers; they decide when to start their day, end it, and where to work.
Communication and Collaboration
Effective communication is a critical and complex ingredient for an asynchronous work environment, especially if the team members are working remotely. Because the needs of a remote team are unique, organizations must learn to understand the barriers to communication before developing a communication strategy. To facilitate communication and collaboration while working remotely, GitLab should capitalize on video calls. Video calls are effective in improving communication and performance of a remote team. Worth noting, there is a need to recognize the physical distance, affinity distance and operational distance between team members. Affinity distance is a barrier to building trust among team members. Video communication tends to be most effective in this regard. On video conference calls, team members get to see each other, bond and build familiarity which would otherwise be difficult to achieve. Another strategy that GitLab can employ is to avoid micro-managing employees. Managers need to recognize that managing teams remotely is hard because walking up to a person to see that they are handling their tasks as they should is not an option (Saarenoksa, 2021). Organizations should trust remote employees as responsible adults who can work on their own with minimal supervision. Further, employers should decide on the tools they intend to use to communicate. The tools should align with office goals. For instance, employers can choose to host game nights to get to know each other outside the office arena. Applications like Snapchat can be used to carry out internal team building. This fun and clever way to keep remote employees connected.
Meaning of Remote, not Flat
When GitLab said that they are “remote not flat,” they meant that working remotely does not have to be boring. When people hear about remote work, the first thing that comes to mind is the seclusion of working alone. Most people think that working from home is not fulfilling because one is likely to get bored because they are alone. On the contrary, this is not the case because remote workers are more productive than office workers. The most important thing is finding ways to keep them engaged to not feel bored despite being alone. One of the strategies GitLab can employ to increase their level of empowerment is including remote workers in on-site organizational events. Overlooking remote workers when planning for company events tends to make them feel undervalued. It can foster feelings of resentment and make them feel excluded. It is important to ensure remote employees take part in team-building activities, company events, and celebrations as it helps them bond with the rest of the employees. Establishing a clear working policy can also empower remote employees. It is imperative that an organization sets and communicates precise expectations to lead to employee and, by extension, employee success (Ozimek, 2020). The policy should stipulate performance expectations, work schedules, project timelines, and times off. It should also be well documented and made available to all employees. This ensures that all employees are on the same page and remain accountable for their actions.
Top-Competencies for All-Remote Jobs
Working remotely can be a huge adjustment for a person who is mostly used to working in an office environment. With the growing preference of people who want to work remotely, there is a need to tap into the set of skills required to hold such a job. As such, remote workers should possess critical in-demand skills that will make their remote working life easier. Digital literacy is one of the most important skills of a remote worker. Remote work heavily relies on digital communication. As such, remote employees should be able to evaluate, identify and generate data in digital form. A person must stay updated on current digital techniques and tools to make work efficient and save on time. Navigating technology is also critical in ensuring that the employee stays connected with clients and colleagues. Some of the tools they should be conversant with include zoom, team viewer, email use, and applications such as twitter and messaging apps such as WhatsApp. Another important skill is emotional intelligence. Working in a remote environment means that there are non-verbal cues to help a person read the mood of the colleagues. As such, emotional intelligence helps an individual to resolve conflicts, identify problems and listen to colleagues. Additionally, remote workers should be self-motivated. There is no manager to check whether you are doing your duties hence remote workers should have a schedule to keep them focused on important tasks and get rid of distractions.
Challenges in Attracting, Motivating and Retaining Remote Employees
One of the main challenges in attracting, motivating, and retaining employees is creating flexible working schedules. Flexible work arrangements are one of the ways to attract employees and retain them. Just like in an office set-up, employees need to have a comfortable working space. Managers are not present to monitor them but they should trust them enough to offer them flexible working hours because it leads to a healthy work-life balance. Another challenge is not giving employees opportunities for learning and development. Employees are likely to quit their job if it does not expose them to learning opportunities. Learning is an ongoing process that makes employees understand that they play a significant role in their success and growth (Zou, Zhao, & Siau, 2020). Additionally, low salaries and benefits can pose a challenge to the hiring and retention of employees. This is because employees are motivated by money, and for them to take up a job, it should be competitive enough to make the individual want to keep working for the company.
Conclusion
In closing, remote working and traditional office jobs work for different people. While some people prefer to work remotely, others prefer working from an office set-up. Each style has its fair share of advantages and disadvantages. Recent research posits that individuals who work from home are more productive than those who work from an office environment. Office workers are likely to face distractions from colleagues, which limits their productivity. Remote working differs from traditional face-to-face jobs in terms of productivity, financial costs and flexibility. While remote workers can wake up and stop working at any time they see fit, office workers observe strict schedules. In future, before deciding the kind of job one wants to take up, they should do extensive research and compare the benefits and disadvantages of remote working and office jobs. Organizations that are yet to consider remote working also need to consider it because, without a doubt, it is the future of companies.
References
Orsini, C., & Rodrigues, V. (2020). Supporting motivation in teams working remotely: The role of basic psychological needs. Medical teacher, 42(7), 828-829.
Ozimek, A. (2020). The future of remote work. Available at SSRN 3638597.
Saarenoksa, M. (2021). The impact of flexible working on productivity and job satisfaction: case future of work in agile R&D.
Zou, C., Zhao, W., & Siau, K. (2020). COVID-19 calls for remote reskilling and retraining. Cutter Bus. Technol. J, 33(7), 21-25.
Remember, this is an outline, not the final paper
Remember, this is an outline, not the final paper.
Use the following outline format:
Introduction
Person A Name and subtopic. Example: John Doe, examining the distribution of earthquakes and the frequency on Earth.
what type of data will be graphed? This is a graph you will make using data collected through your online research. You do not have to include it now, but state what it will be covering, example “A line graph examining the number of earthquakes each year since the year 2000”.
what type of data or figure will be included? This is a picture or figure you found in your research that you want to include in your paper. Be sure to list the source within the reference section of the final paper, and to include a source caption beneath the picture/figure in the final paper. Example, “A picture of plate tectonic boundaries and the distribution of earthquakes during a given time”.
Person B
data to be graphed
data or figure to be included
Person C
data to be graphed
data or figure to include
Person D
data to be graphed
data or figure to be included
Person E
data to be graphed
data or figure to be included
Conclusion
References
Once you have submitted your group outline, complete group survey assessment 1.
Religious
Religious Motif in Modern Literature
Religious Myth in Literature and Life
Big Event Ceremonies
We have already explored how religion has been a part of western culture since ancient times. But let’s pose the question of how religion fits into our lives today even if you’re not religious. Even mildly religious people participate in ceremonies or rituals that are rooted in religion. Think of marriage ceremonies, and baptisms, graduation ceremonies, retirement parties etc. If any of you are married then you know that the ceremony and the reception don’t make you married, the signing of the marriage certificate at the courthouse makes you legally married. If you’ve baptized a child you know that a certificate from the church that says “God-parents” on it won’t give legal custody to them in the awful event of parental passing. If you’ve been to a Mexican quinceanera, you know that having a big party at age 15 doesn’t magically transform that girl into a woman. These are all symbolic ceremonies deeply rooted in cultural religions; VERY EXPENSIVE ceremonies symbolic of different events in our lives. But if we know that these wildly expensive rituals and ceremonies hold no legal value, then why do we do it? Even non-religious people participate in these various ceremonies and rituals. Why do we do it? Why not save the money and stress of planning?
Not-So BIg Events
What about not so major milestones in our lives? We can’t have a celebratory ceremony for every job promotion or good hair day. We can’t have a “funeral” for every break-up or, heaven forbid, every failed test. Typically we use religious myth to help us cope with these not-so-serious, although devastating, loses in life. A common myth used to help cope is the story of JOB (pronounced JOBE). You may be familiar, this myth originates in Judaism, but Christians tell this story too. If you are not familiar, essentially Satan tells Jesus that the only reason people are faithful and good is so they can be rewarded by Jesus with a good life. So to prove Satan wrong Jesus takes away everything that is good in his most faithful follower Job. Job loses his children, his wife and suffers disease, and yet he remains faithful to Jesus until the end. After proving his point, Jesus eventually rewards Job again. But this story in essence addresses the question “why do bad things happen to good people,” or “why me,” which we often ask when going through struggles. We want to believe that there is some sort of Divine justice where people who endure suffering now will be rewarded later. And that bad people who get away with it today will be punished later. This is what religious myth does for us. It gives us hope in the face of all the suffering that we are enduring now. We hope that there is always light at the end of the tunnel. We hope that there is Divine justice.
The Theme of Hope
Religious myth is meant to inspire, it’s meant to help us cope, to provide comfort when there is little else to comfort us. We are supposed to take these myths, these philosophical thoughts, and apply them to our lives. The myth is a metaphor for a universal truth, something we believe in, and when we can take these metaphors and apply them to our circumstances we may feel understood as a person, perhaps less alone.
The Christ Myth
Let’s consider the Christ myth as it is one of the most widely known myth stories as it is the very foundation of Christianity. In a very watered down version: we probably all know that Christ was born through Divine conception and birth, he gave his message that he was the son of God and prophet of Christianity, he was condemned to death by crucifixion, and he resurrected three days later which we call Easter. But why is the Christ myth unique from the Job myth we looked at earlier? Why is this one more widely known? Why do we place waaay more importance on the Christ myth? Well it’s because Christ was a real human who really walked the earth. The fact that we have a real person as the main character of the story makes the myth partly and technically historical. Think of George Washington. We all know the myth that he chopped down the cherry tree when he was little even though he wasn’t supposed to, and when he was confronted by his father about it he said “I cannot tell a lie.” This story teaches the importance of honesty just like “the boy who cried wolf,” but the George Washington story gets more weight, and children and adults really believe it to be true because George was a real person and the boy who cried wolf is, well just a nameless boy in a story. Did George really chop down a cherry tree and nobly own up to it? I don’t know, I wasn’t there, but we easily accept the story because of the one historical and factual aspect that George Washington existed. It’s the same with the Christ myth.
So we use this myth in secular (non-religious) literature metaphorically too. The Christ myth, also known as the Resurrection myth, or transformation myth, is about self-discovery. At the end of the story Christ experiences a full blending of both his conscious self and his unconscious self, both body and spirit. He ascends to heaven as his true and complete Self in mind, body, spirit, and he assumes his true identity as the son of God.
Religious Myth becomes Motif in Literature
This story helps us to self-discover. But what about non-religious people? How do they learn to self-discover? Well they do, just in different kinds of stories. The Christ myth is one of the most common stories. It’s actually a MOTIF. In literary terms, motif means a pattern that happens over and over again in stories. Remember how if I say “Once upon a time there was a princess…” you would be able to finish that whole story for me without me saying another word, because by the age of 5 you already knew that pattern. You already know the princess gets rescued and they lived happily ever after. This is a very easy and common pattern to follow.
The Christ motif is a pattern too. It’s also known as Resurrection motif, or transformation motif, initiation motif etc. there are many names, but the literary pattern is the same. We are obsessed with this pattern because it helps us to learn more about ourselves. It goes like this:
Hero must leave status quo
Must face obstacles
Descends to an underworld
Must die (either real or metaphorical death)
Returns as a reborn or resurrected hero with new knowledge of the Self and the world around them.
Leaves status quo: refers to the heroes “home base” as it were. The hero is in their regular life environment here, but something happens, usually conflict, that compels or forces the hero to move, leave, or take action away from their “home base.”Faces obstacles: refers to the hardships the hero faces. The road to self-discovery is difficult, and long and not all heroes make it. The hero typically faces a few difficult obstacles before tey are ready to descend into an underground world. Entering an unfamiliar underground: refers to the hero physically going down somewhere. It can present itself as several places in a story, like a basement, or a tunnel, really anything below the surface. The hero must descend into this unfamiliar world because it is here that they will be able to gain some clarity and learn about who they really are “under the surface.”
Must die literally or metaphorically: It is here that the hero will let their old self “die” and let their new self be “reborn.” They will leave their old self there in the underground like a grave. We know they are dying because there are typically many associations with death present in the story. When the character has gained new knowledge about themselves and the world around them then their old self has died and a new self can emerge. Resurrecting: refers to the hero who then emerges from that undergrounds as their new self. Something about them has changed at this point and they have new knowledge to have and share with their community.
This motif in literature is so persistent, so apparent, that it reveals something about mankind. The resurrection is a symbol of rebirth, a new beginning for a character who is transitioning to another phase in their life where having undergone obstacles they are new, wiser, in slang they are woke. And when you’re woke, that naive part of you dies and you can’t go back.
This is why we do rituals and ceremonies!
We follow this pattern all the time in our lives, so it’s no surprise that writers will talk about it. In college there’s a big graduation ceremony because you need to let your uneducated-self die so you can be reborn as an educated person with a degree. The marriage ceremony is so you can publicly let your single-self die so your couple-self can have a fresh start. The risk of not allowing yourself to metaphorically die is getting stuck and not being able to move on to the next phase of your life. I’ll give you for instance; a friend of mine recently retired but did not want a retirement party. It’s been 6 months and she still comes in the office, checks emails, and does odd jobs. Personally, I believe it’s because she didn’t go through the ritual. She didn’t have the ceremony, have the party to let the work-self “die” so that the retired-self could be born and just enjoy retirement. She got stuck in between…
Read the short story on the next page and uncover the transformation motif.
Look for the stages of the pattern in the short story provided in the next Module
Hero must leave status quo
Must face obstacles
Descends to an underworld
Must die (either real or metaphorical death)
Returns as a reborn or resurrected hero with new knowledge of the Self and the world around them.
Your Mid-Term is based on this short story and this pattern. Make sure to give yourself plenty of time to read it and take notes and write your paper.